So I made a flag model in 3DSMax which ruffles in the wind and all. Pretty simple thing to accomplish with the cloth modifier, but now I'm coming to find animation in source models is not vertex based at all but is in fact bone based? Is that true (the dispenser build animation just struck me as being vertex based)? Any modellers out there know of a quick way to create an animated windswept flag model? I could tie bones to the flag mesh, but then I can't really use the cloth modifier. Would I use reactor instead? Frustrating that I have the animation all done, but now have to find some other way of getting it into source.
experience with animated models?
- Thread starter Jive Turkey
- Start date
I guess I should not that this is particularly a 3DSMax question. I'm making the model in that as well as exporting the SMD with wunderkid's exporter.
Snipergen
L13: Stunning Member
- Nov 16, 2007
- 1,051
- 150
I do not have experience with creating animations for source yet, however I know that some mates at school made a cat, but that was with bones and boneweights.
I would find it odd if you just can't animate vertex based, since you export your 3rd SMD as an animation etc.... maybe need to look for some tuts.
I would find it odd if you just can't animate vertex based, since you export your 3rd SMD as an animation etc.... maybe need to look for some tuts.
Man I just did some looking at the dispenser build animation with hlmv.exe and it does indeed use bones. Even the ammo chain that wiggles out of the side uses bones, like 20 all scrunched together! Guess I'll just have to map bones all through my flag model, kind of funny though as there will end up being 1 bone for every vertex in the flag. Kind of defeats the purpose of using bones! 
Just the model view available on the SDK window, I have a shortcut made to it so I forgot it's on there. You can view the bones and all sorts of other information about existing models.
So just for an update, I found this thread on a problem related to mine and the solution does seem to be promising. It's a way to have the vertices of the flag, animated by a cloth modifier, drive the animation of bones. It basically says to make a copy of the flag model, rig that with bones, draw a spline over those bones, apply a skinwrap modifier to the spline to have it follow the motion of the original flag (which is already perfectly animated with the easy to use cloth modifier), then apply a SplineIK Solver to the chain of bones so they in turn follow the motion of the spline. Is this more complicated than it should be? Probably. Is it too complicated? It's actually easier than it sounds and save for a few hiccups in the bone animation which I think I can fix by hand, it works. Although Now I'm having a problem exporting it to SMD, but I think I can get it working.